Yes, but what have you done?

There’s a delicate, healthy balance religious people need to work out:

Investing one’s time talking and debating theology.

Getting out in public and doing something for God, for right-ness.

Religious people talk plenty of talk, oh dear God, do we talk. By the way we talk, you’d think that religious people are the most righteous people on the face of the earth. And we’re the smartest, too, having explored nearly every nook and cranny the theological spectrum. But in reality, the only thing we lead the world in is hypocrisy, I bet.

Many of us have strong opinions. We don’t have to be pushed to have an opinion about that new religious take on that one blog. That ministry’s theological position. That leader’s personal ethics. We do it naturally. Left to our own devices, that's all we’d ever do. Sometimes I worry that I spend more time talking about God and theology than actually doing it.

What is “it”? Living a right life, contributing to God’s goals for the world. I hate to use “righteous life”, because that brings too much baggage and connotations to the table. How about living a good life? A consistently good life in public AND in private? We talk –and fight– about theology, about which of the commandments we should be keeping, for example. We talk about liturgy and the make-up of our congregation and our services. We talk about what the future of our religion is. We debate about the goals of our religion.

If that is the bulk of your religious life, God help you.

At the point when I spend all my time talking about God, and very little of my living a right life, my worst fear has been realized: I've become a pundit. The last thing the world needs is more pundits. Scratch that, the last thing this world needs is more religious pundits.

Pundits add ephemeral commentary to the world instead of anything concrete and real. They don't materially participate in the construction of any lasting artifacts; instead, they passively observe other people's work and offer a never-ending babbling brook of opinions, criticism, and witty turns of phrase. It's pathetic.

And it’s worse when the pundits are intellectuals. Oh, intellectuals! The rare, special enlightened among us! The problem with intellectuals is that they intellectualize everything. "The plain meaning is X, you see, but if you really study like I have, and understand all the nuances and vagaries and context, the meaning is Y.” Suddenly, that clear statement from Yeshua is now a gray sea of vague.

God save us from intellectuals.

On the Messianic blogosphere, it’s comedy gold. Pundit Isaac comments on real work W, then commenter Jacob disagrees with his punditry, and offers his own commentary on the Isaac’s commentary. And they fight about it! If Isaac is lucky, some opposing pundit may even write a reactionary punditry on his own blog!

Judaism is especially rank with this. Many of our traditional texts are merely pundits commenting on other pundits’ commentaries. Religious people commenting on other people’s commenting, ad infinitum, such that we have meta-pundits. Pundits upon pundits! 10 layers of commentary before getting to the meat. It’s pundits all the way down.

I do not dismiss the real works that our sages have contributed, but I do wonder how many of them contributed anything beyond commentary. As much as we value their wisdom, I wonder how many of them, you know, did something.

Perhaps that’s why I’m so drawn to the idea of looking at their fruit. It’s an old religious cliché, I know. But I think it’s basically true that we’ll be judged by what we do, not by what we say.

We are especially good at tearing apart actual works of other religious people. But how many of us actually do stuff for that Kingdom we’re supposedly citizens of?

Seriously, what have you done? If what you have done consists mostly of theological debating and arguing and commentary, what the hell have you been doing? If your answer is, “I kept kosher and kept the feasts and did shabbat!”, well, that’s nice, but aren’t you missing something big?

I can already hear the frantic, angry pundit responses, but it must be said: the goal of this religious life isn’t to be saved from hell by trusting in Jesus, or keeping observances of X and Y. If you think that’s the goal, you’re a selfish religious butthead with your head in the sand.

Trusting in God and observing commandments are tools to a greater purpose. The goal of this religious life is to do the things that build God’s kingdom. What have you done, what have you contributed? Give me that over all the commentary in the world.

You wrote a nice commentary on this week’s parsha? That’s nice. But what have you done?

You wrote a good blog post refuting that one theology? Ok, but what have you done?

You debated that one guy and told him what’s what? Ok, but what have you done?

It's helpful to discuss theology, and writing your punditry can be useful, but sometimes the value of a theology is inversely proportional to how much it has been discussed. Our job as religious people is to serve God by doing, not by discussing and debating theology until Kingdom comes [pun by all means intended].

We’ll be judged by what we’ve done, not by the meta-discussion around what someone else did.

Don’t wait. Don’t procrastinate. Stop talking about it. Righteous people aren’t the ones who put out the greatest commentaries. The good people of planet earth, right now, are the people out there doing. Dreamers don’t do good. Get off your ass and start doing something for the kingdom, something real, something tangible. Otherwise, you’ll end up just another forgotten religious hypocrite that had nice ideas but never did anything.

34 comments:

Don't you know that if you "observe the Torah" then you're automatically a "meta-internetty-web-scholor?" Har har har. What do you mean, DO something? You mean I have to get up and put my Bible down and DO something?

Actually this post is a bit more sobering consider these three scriptures: 2Co 7:1 Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.Phil 2:12 So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.Rev 12:11 They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.I believe because of our easy lifestyle here we can too easily become lazy in our actions, it's easy to be full of scripture but to never act on His Word is sin.

Careful Judah, you are on the verge of losing your standing in the messianic blogosphere. Religious people do not like to have a mirror held up so that they can see themselves.

Your comments are right on as far as I am concerned. Sometimes I have to step away from the blogs because I find myself spending all of my time in the theoretical and none of it in the practical.

William Blake said:

He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer...

As the only Messianic leaning family in a small town I have had a hard time watching the leaders of the different churches. After all, in a small town you cannot hide.

I have tried to do my "good works" as quietly as possible, but it is often hard to do anything without the entire town knowing. What bothers me is when I do something "selfless" for someone, I am often asked why I did it. My response is usually "Why didn't you?"

To me, putting our faith into actions is what separates Messianics from the rest of the church. Or at least it is supposed to be what sets us apart.

Actually, if you're "doing it right", most people will never know exactly what you are doing to serve God. Many people think truly serving God involves a lot of fanfare and personal attention, such as "feeling lead" to become a Pastor or Rabbi" so everyone can see your face, but most of the ways to truly serve God and other people don't involve anyone knowing about what you're doing at all. Shoveling snow off your neighbor's drive when he's not home, or weeding a widow's lawn doesn't get a lot of attention. Donating to your local foodbank or giving used clothes to your neighborhood homeless shelter doesn't involve being at the center of the stage.

Writing in the Messianic (or other) blogosphere is what we do to draw attention to ourselves and to toot our own horns, so to speak. While there can be value in sharing our insights and understanding, it's not at the heart of obeying the commandments and emulating the actions of the Messiah.

When you are serving God...really serving God, chances are, no one will ever know. It requires you (us) to check your (our...my) egos at the door.

James, while I agree that the ultimate goal might be to do good works without being seen, it is not always practical or even possible.

How about as a first step, the Messianic congregations start doing good works as a group, where no one person takes on too much authority and therefore receives too much praise.

I would argue that the personality of many Messianics does not lend itself to doing random acts of kindness. Maybe it is a trait that needs to be learned?

Think about how much certain church groups stand out when they take on a good works role. At the very least it could improve Messianics in the eyes of the world around them and make their message more palatable.

As a Christian who believes in Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, my Savior, Bible study has taught me that my goal is eternal life in heaven, and to get there I must do 2 things: Love the Lord my God with my whole heart, soul, and mind, and to love my neighbor as myself. When we do things for others, we can get our praise here on earth, or we can please our Lord. So it sounds like we are 'to put our Bible down (for a bit) and Do something'. Personally, I would rather be doing things for others than being a 'meta-internetty-web-scholar'. It is much more fun to see the joy and happiness that occurs when you can help provide to another (and, yes, sometimes you can't get around the fact that they will know who we are and what we are doing for them). But balance we must... for through Bible study we continually hone our skills for loving and serving. Roch Mom

I don't see why Messianics doing good deeds should be any different than Christians or rabbinic Jews doing good deeds. Functionally, the activities are identical. Is it harder for a Messianic to visit a sick person in the hospital than it is for a Christian?

I'm not suggesting that it's possible to be completely anonymous when doing good for others (the guy whose driveway I cleared eventually tracked me down), but we shouldn't deliberately seek out doing good just to make ourselves look cool. The idea is that we're helping others and doing what God wants us to do.

Sure, doing a good deed as a group can be fun and sometimes that level of manpower is necessary. A few summers ago, the lot of us got together to paint a family's home and having more people was definitely an asset. That said, God drops opportunities for each of us to help others in our paths all the time. All we have to do is take advantage of what God sends our way.

Oh well, maybe just one little comment. Study the lives of the Sages and you may discover what you were looking for: most were men who were busy in good deeds. Unlike the professional pastor/rabbi, the Sages also (really) worked for a living. Their admonition was that hard work and having a trade or profession was a necessary part of a righteous man's life.

Sometimes a person's circumstances don't allow the 'doing' of Christianity... I'm thinking of the poorest of the poor, as an example... But when you think about it, our lives can be like 'walking Bibles' to those who would never open a Bible nor have one of their own. We are to be Christ-like in everything, which will bring people's attention to our 'different' character... Let them open 'our Book', which is the Book of the Lord... and be sure to give credit to the Lord as soon as possible. It is then that they can start reading the Words our Messiah gave to us. Rmom

Sometimes a person's circumstances don't allow the 'doing' of Christianity... I'm thinking of the poorest of the poor, as an example... But when you think about it, our lives can be like 'walking Bibles' to those who would never open a Bible nor have one of their own. We are to be Christ-like in everything, which will bring people's attention to our 'different' character... Let them open 'our Book', which is the Book of the Lord... and be sure to give credit to the Lord as soon as possible. It is then that they can start reading the Words our Messiah gave to us. Rmom

Well said. Behavior is the great equalizer among people of faith. While folks without financial resources may not be able to help out in the same way as those who are relatively secure (though you could consider Luke 21:1-4), everyone has something to give others, even if it's "just" a smile, a kind word of encouragement, or help moving a sofa.

This is where "the rubber meets the road", to quote an old commercial. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, educated or uneducated, Jewish or Gentile, Messianic, Christian, Rabbinic Jews, or operate under some other "label". It's what you do that counts and where your heart is, not what you write on a blog.

It is odd to me that you dislike the infinity of the Torah. It must be handled step by step, but what is proper is to delve into the Torah in immense detail. I suppose Messianics generally disagree with this, though.

The Torah is infinite and therefore there can theoretically be an infinite number of commentaries and midrashim on the Torah.

And I'm sure Torah sages do much more than your average atheist, Christian, Messianic, or Muslim, since with the 613 base-commands of Torah and their explanations amount to myriads upon myriads of obligations. You see, the Torah is supposed to be the very life of a Jew. But Messianics (and needles to say the other adherents to false religions as mentioned above) I guess do not agree with this probably because they're living a form of Christianity.

Your outlook on this matter is definitely an outlook that does not view the details of Torah favorable.

No shahhitta ("shechita"), no understanding of melakhoth, no fulfilling the positive command of tafillin, no recital of brakhoth at the appropriate time, etc, the list goes on.Someone cannot truly be adhering to Torah when they do not adhere to these very important details of Torah.

But people who have not yet become Israel are not actually obligated to most of these. And I do not expect a mixture religion like Messianism to adhere to these. In time, some probably will.

So the disagreement is more about what people should aspire to, rather than the status of their process.

I'm guessing that someone might counter with "but Jesus said the weightier matters of Torah are mercy, love, etc, etc, etc". But if Yehoshua` was not a heretic and actually did believe and do the Torah, then he would consider a Jew who intentionally breaks Shaboth (by lighting a fire or buying something, etc) to get "karet", cutting off of the soul. No life in the world to come, unless you repent. Messianism doesn't teach anything like that:1. Because they don't actually follow Yehoshua` (since they do not know what it actually means and have been deceieved),2. Few Messianics probably actually know about those commands of Torah,3. A minority of Messianics are actually Jewish and thereby obligated to these commands.

I wish people understood these things. Because without understanding such things, people are ignorant and lacking in their obligations. People with Israelite souls who should convert and become part of `am Yisrael are diverted from doing so by crap teachings of Christian/Messianic supremecy, AKA replacement theolody.

I did not even touch on the penalty for believing in a second to the Creator, praying to another besides the Creator, and worshiping another besides the Creator. All of which are blatantly and plainly condemned and warned against, without any allegory, in the text of the Tanakh. Thus, a big irony occurs when the pre-requisite for eternal life is belief in a man-god creation of the mind, when in actuality, this will condemn a person's soul to death.

Yes, I am saying everyone who hates the Oral Torah out of ignorance of their Christian-programmed mind, and who worship, pray to, or believe in a second to the Creator have no place in the world to come unless they repent.

This is what Christianity and Messianism breed. Death of the soul. People who don't repent and get out of such false religions, and don't actually do what Yehoshua` did, which was adhere to all of his obligations as a Jew, will surely die at their death. No eternal life. In fact, Yehoshua` teaches exactly this. Messianics, and much less Christians, do not actually do what he said. If they did, they would be doing well. Because they wouldn't worship another besides the Creator and would believe both in the Written and Oral Torahs.

I really wish people would stop being ignorant and arrogant in their false religion and get out.

If someone believes Yehoshua` was a righteous Jew, then they would have to believe what I said. Because that is what the Torah says about such issues. But unfortunately, fools will say that their own personal interpretation which rejects vasts amounts of Torah wisdom is the standard by which Yehoshua` lived. What garbage, and what arrogance, ignorance, and foolishness.

It is odd you routinely beat your underage wife with mini dulcimer hammers.

(False, accusatory statements suck.)

>> I'm sure Torah sages do much more than your average atheist, Christian, Messianic, or Muslim, since with the 613 base-commands of Torah and their explanations amount to myriads upon myriads of obligations

Obligations ≠ right living.

>> Your outlook on this matter is definitely an outlook that does not view the details of Torah favorable.

No, I do view it favorably. Don't tell me what I believe.

>> Because [Messianics] don't actually follow Yehoshua` (since they do not know what it actually means and have been deceieved),

We are disciples of Yeshua. It is you who pick and choose which of Messiah's words to believe, amplifying statements like "keep the Torah to have eternal life", but minimizing statements like "No one comes to God except through Me" and "He who rejects me rejects my Father in heaven".

>> worshiping another besides the Creator

All creation will praise the Lamb, who is part of the creator. It says this explicitly in Revelation. There is no second god. This "second god" idea is a straw man argument invented by anti-missionaries who routinely obstruct God's kingdom.

>> I really wish people would stop being ignorant and arrogant in their false religion and get out.

1. You had some sort of problem with sages writing on details of Torah, no? Didn't you something very similar to that? That's all I was trying to point out. And I disagree with that mindset that you have, that's all.

2. Fulfilling obligations does mean right living. Don't let Galatians fool you. It doesn't even align with what Yehoshua` said.

3. I think you do sincerely think you favor details of Torah, but we disagree majorly in what are those details. Because many aspects of Torah do not exist in yours and normative Messianic "observance".

4. No one in the Tanakh prayed to any other than HaShem, and relied on no one but HaShem to forgive their sins. One can always seek HaShem DIRECTLY, but you do, plainly, disagree with this. You are very wrong, and I have no idea how you reconcile this Christian view with the Tanakh.Also, you don't seem to take into account the dubious "cannon" of the Christian church, and their edits to the text of their Bible.

5. Judah, stop accusing everyone of some stupid "straw man" argument. The fact is, you worship another besides the Creator, and that is a violation of the first Matter of the 10 Matters, and other statements of the Tanakh that say there is NO OTHER besides HaShem.Your Greek-minded "one with God" theology is Hellenism. Its not in the Tanakh and not in authentic Torah-Judaism. It is not a pure belief, and it has no place in service to the One Creator who has no parts and no body and no form and no corporeality, and no likeness to be perceived by the human mind.

6. Very funny, Judah. It is comical how you defend idolatry and try to tell me, who am content with the salvation and worship of the One True God (which is the mode Yehoshua` taught), that I am the one in error.You have no place to speak. You have never been here, you have only been there. I was there and now I'm here, so I am able to say what trash the Messianic religion usually is.

Ahh and your cronies to back you up with:"Good response! I used to go to church, and now I believe the same idolatrous garbage as Christianity, just that I do it on Saturday when I call on my god jayzeus who is one with God, and I praise his name, which is complete idolatry since you are to worship none other than the Creator. But I reconcile this severe sin with my Hellenistic theology which categorizes and limits God, saying a man is actually part of him. That's pretty ridiculous, considering the Tanakh says God is not a man nor a son of man. But I'll believe this anyway, because I rely on Christian tradition and don't mind the editing and twisting done by the church fathers.And also, I boast saying I am the perfect religion. Smack dab between Christianity and Judaism. I got the best of both worlds, and I am superior to both. Screw the Jews and their man-mad observance of Torah. Heck, I make up my own interpretation of the Torah, like Karaites, and I pride myself in that. I am the biggest, most arrogant and ignorant person you might ever meet. Aaron used to be this way too, but he changed and went against the status quo of his environment because he is evil and apparently hates God and has no spiritual relationship with him, since he is content with worshiping ONLY God serving Him alone. Poor soul..."

I responded point by point to your lame response, Judah, and I saw that it posted. Now I cannot. I will assume that it is a glitch and I suppose I'll be content with the content I layed out in my mockery of you and your goons and your idolatry.

"Know this day, and lay it to your heart, that HaShem, He is God in heaven above and over the earth beneath; there is none else."

Ah, now you sneak in the word "fulfilling". Before you accused Christians of living terribly because only Jews have 613 obligations.

That's the whole point of my post, dude. If you just talk about God and do nothing, what the hell have you been doing? Having obligations is not right living. An alcoholic, abusive husband has obligations, but that doesn't mean he's living right.

Living right is right living. That means doing something. I think you actually agree with me, but you're being contrarian because my following Yeshua angers you.

>> No one in the Tanakh prayed to any other than HaShem

When I pray to Yeshua, I am praying to HaShem. Yeshua is an emanation of God, the Word made flesh. God is not a man, but he can appear in the flesh. A plain reading of the Tenakh -- one that doesn't involve Scriptural acrobatics -- concurs.

>> Judah, stop accusing everyone of some stupid "straw man" argument

I'll keep beating that drum until it's heard. A straw man argument is an argument where one side misrepresents the other's position, then attacks that misrepresentation.

That's exactly what's happened here: Judaism-shaming anti-missionaries who routinely obstruct God's kingdom misrepresent our position, claiming we worship a 2nd god. We do no such thing. We worship the God of Israel alone. Yeshua is not a second god anymore than the Word is a second god, anymore than God's spirit is a second god.

It pains me that you listen to hate-filled anti-missionaries more than your own family. You'll change in time.

>> Your Greek-minded "one with God" theology is Hellenism

Sorry, it's in the gospels and Revelation and the epistles. If you reject all of them (do you?), how can you tell me anything about Yeshua? You often tell me that Christians and Messianics don't understand Messiah's teachings. How can you say that when you reject all the books containing Messiah's teachings?

>> It is comical how you defend idolatry

It is comical how you defend beating your underage wife with mini dulcimer hammers.

(Are we done with radical, false accusations?)

>> You have no place to speak. You have never been here, you have only been there. I was there and now I'm here, so I am able to say what trash the Messianic religion usually is.

Aaron, you're my brother. I've helped you through some tough times in your life. I've seen you have shift after shift in your life. I can remember one point where you made prophecies and had dreams and deeply read into what time it was on the clock each time you looked at it. You made statements like, "If this doesn't come to pass, then I'm done". You drift from place to place, it seems, as if you can't find it. Every year, it's a new theology, a new outlook, a new girlfriend.

Several years ago, you got into teachings that Dad warned you about. You thought they upheld Messiah and Torah, but in reality, they led you down the wrong path, and what I'm witnessing right now from you is the ugly fruit of that. I see dad's wisdom in rebuking you over it. I hope you will see it, too, in time.

I love you, bro. Truth is, all that you want was there all the time: peace and stability in Messiah.

You'll find it again some time, and I'll be the first to welcome you back when it happens.

Oh, brother, there you go with the "our" again, my gentile friend. Sr. Himango, why is it so difficult for you to admit that you're a non-Jew preaching non-Judaism? Don't you feel your ideology is strong enough to prevail over Judaism irrespective of your personal ethnicity? Why the indulgence in trickery?

I know it angers you that Jewish people can follow Jesus. I've seen your tactics on other Messianic blogs, where you turn everything into a question of whether the person is really Jewish. (In fact, you just did this on the Gathering Sparks blog!)

You will not repeat that on this blog. One and only warning. Have fun.

If you are indeed intent are forming a goon army, I would like to remind you that the Torah would limit who was sent out to battle. If someone's heart was not in it, then they were not allowed to go with the army. I would use that same guideline here as well.

If you are looking for a way to encourage people to go to battle, there were a few people on this blog that should have been left behind. What could have been an opportunity for encouraging good works instead turned into a typical internet debate that tended to reveal character instead of answers.

How about if you do a blog on good works and limit responders to only positive responses lest they not be posted. Yes I would have to be careful too. :)

Great post, great points. The need for doing things that actually matter cannot be emphasized strongly enough.

That being said, this is the Internet. I do things in the real world. I come here to talk, to argue, to make connections, to refine my thinking, to bounce ideas around. I don't come here to do because there really isn't anything to do here (except to remind people to go out and do every once in awhile). If you want to know about what I've done, shoot me a Facebook message.

Sometimes, things really aren't as clear as our first impression, and scholarship does play a really important role in letting us know that. Someone could just as easily say that Paul is obvious and you and I are playing acrobatics to make him okay with anyone practicing kashrut in any sense.

There is a need for scholarship, dialogue, and doing. And yes, it does help to be reminded that doing is most important, but you don't have to call the close Jewish reading of Scripture "punditry" to remind us of that.

The Sages made tzedakah one of the pillars of post-Temple Jewish life, and while I don't think we can dig up charity records from fifth-century Babylon, if their thoughts about it are any indication, they did do a lot more than just "punditry".

Study Torah, that's important. Do things, that's more important. I think you may be creating a conflict that doesn't (usually) exist. (Although I did once have the great pleasure of cheering when a friend of mine tore a kollel rabbi a new one for implying that shmirat mitzvot was obligatory and being a mensch was only a nice thing to do.)

>> Do I have your permission to print this on an inflatable hammer? I'm only partially kidding.

:grin:

FWIW, I think there are real things you can contribute on the internet besides commentary. For example, I've used my skills as a software developer to build the Greatest Commandments Project, and also Chavah Messianic Radio. I fancy those things as minor contributions to the kingdom, and they're not just commentary.

Of course you don't have to be a programmer to contribute. While the Weekly Bracha is part commentary, I look at it as shedding light on some of the more relevant posts on the Messianic blogosphere. So I hope that, in some way, is a contribution. I have another blog that puts Paul's letters in blog form and in modern language. Again, perhaps some commentary there, but I think it contributes to the kingdom in some tangible way.

I think these things are more valuable than Judah's commentary/criticism of other blogs/bloggers/ministries. :-)

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